1Isaac Smith Jr. to John Adams, 3 September 1771 (Adams Papers)
I have just returned from an agreable excursion, in the course of which I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of April last, with that of Mrs. Adams, for each of which I beg leave to return my thanks. I am sorry to find that you have deserted Boston. You plead as an excuse, sir, “the load of public and private care, which oppress’d you.” But you would have pleased me better, if instead...
2Isaac Smith Jr. to John Adams, 21 February 1771 (Adams Papers)
I have very little of a political, or of any other kind of entertainment to give you. Yet I cannot omit a few lines, however small an expression they may be, sir, of my esteem and regard for you. The apprehensions of a war, the delay of Commerce, the distress of individuals, and the liberal expences of public treasure have at length ended in this—after a negociation of four months—that the...